Reflections on Nexus #2
The power of information should be linked to wisdom.
Despite the stupendous amounts of information at our disposal, we are as susceptible as our ancient ancestors to fantasy and delusion, Nazism and Stalinism are but two recent examples of the mass insanity that occasionally engulfs even modern societies. Nobody disputes that humans today have a lot more information and power than in the Stone Age, but it is far from certain that we understand ourselves and our role in the universe much better.
Nexus by Yuval Noah Harari, p. XII
The power that information provides for humans does not make them wise. Information and wisdom are two different things. Wisdom refers to the values that guide the application of that information. Information is related to what psychologists call IQ, the intellectual quotient. Wisdom is related to what is called SQ, the spiritual quotient.
Spiritual intelligence is far less studied than IQ and EQ, the emotional quotient. One of the best models of SQ I have found is the model proposed by Cindy Wigglesworth in her book The Twenty-One Skills of Spiritual Intelligence.
When Harari writes that “it is far from certain that we understand ourselves and our role in the universe much better” I am reminded of two skills in Wigglesworth’s model of spiritual intelligence: “awareness of own worldview,” and “awareness of interconnectedness of life.”
Socrates taught that “an unexamined life is not worth living.” How much does our society encourage people to examine their own lives? How much do you examine your own life? How many people do you know that examine their interior spiritual life and functioning in all the domains: physical, psychological, social, spiritual?
How much does our society encourage people to become aware of the interconnectedness of life? We became aware of our interconnectedness during the Covid-19 pandemic when “supply chains” were disrupted and resources to meet our needs were not available from the usual sources. The anxiety in society escalated from previous lower levels when people couldn’t find and buy something as fundamental as toilet paper. And we as a species are becoming much more aware of the ecology of life with climate warming which is caused by human activity leading to species extinction and weather events with destructive consequences for our customary patterns of living.
Without the commensurate development of spiritual intelligence to the availability of information, humans do stupid things that are destructive to the species and the planet we inhabit. How is the development of spiritual intelligence among homo sapiens to be nurtured and facilitated? Harari seems to be sharing with us his awareness that what he calls “information networks” is fundamental to understanding ourselves and our role in the universe better. “Information networks” is a helpful concept, but it seems that more is needed than just information if homo sapiens is to not only survive as a species but thrive. What is it?
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